#1 Attract Willing Buyers
You come into your office and you sit at your desk. Today’s the day you’re going to (have to) make 100 phone calls (cold calls) to prospective customers. The odds are 95% of them will end up somewhere between “no” and hang up. Bad odds. And, of the other 5% that displayed some form of interest, one may eventually end up buying.
The point is you will make the sale 95% of the time when you RECEIVE an unsolicited call from a prospective customer. You will lose the sale 95% of the time when you MAKE an unsolicited call to a prospective customer.
#2 Think Yes!
Every person, you included, wants to achieve more, earn more, find happiness, be successful, and be fulfilled. Oh, and make more sales!
At the root of all these elements is attitude – positive attitude – your positive attitude. Every person, you included, instinctively knows that. Yet most haven’t fully embraced or discovered their positive attitude.
If you’re looking for a secret, here’s the one Jeff uses: he performs at least one random act of kindness a day, and he creates at least ten smiles a day from people he interacts with. Try it. The results, and the smiles, will amaze you.
#3 Believe Before You Succeed
If you’re looking for the secret sauce of making more sales and more money, the fulcrum point is your belief system. The way you believe in your company, your product, your ability to convey your message, your ability to differentiate yourself from your competitor, your ability to prove value to your customer, and your deep belief that the customer is better off having purchased from you will lead you to more sales, and a fat wallet.
The key to understanding belief is understanding the source of belief. Belief does not come from your head, belief comes from your heart. Start there.
#4 Employ Humor
Humor is a science – you can study it, learn it, even practice it. But before you can employ humor, you have to know when to use it, how to use it, and what is appropriate.
Laughter leads to listening.
Why does laughter make people listen better? Easy – people would rather be laughing. After the first laugh you want, maybe even expect, another
To get a laugh, or a bunch of laughs, here are 3.5 things to do:
- Test your humor on a friend to be sure it’s funny before you say it.
- Make sure the laugh is at your own expense, not at someone else’s.
- Not funny? Study humor.
- 5 Timing is everything. Study comedians. They know HOW and WHEN to deliver a punch line, and how long to pause.
#5 Build Your Own Brand
In the old days you could get away with being a company man. Today you better be your own man or woman. You better have your own brand and your own reputation because it gets there way before you do, and sets the tone for the mutual respect you’re hoping for.
In sales it’s not who you know; in sales it’s who knows you.
Brand is not just about becoming known and shouting your name. You have to back it up with the elements of quality, consistency, customer focus, customer help, response, service, and customer attraction. Then throw in a dose of fun so that the customer BUYS.
#6 Earn Reputation
Reputation is the Sister of Branding. And Vice-Versa.
Reputation is the foundation by which brands grow or die. Your reputation is what people say about you.
- How you did it.
- What you did about it.
- How you served.
- What their experience was.
- And whether or not they will recommend you.
Your brand is built and enhanced by your reputation.
#7 Be Assertive & Persistent
Are You Passive, Aggressive, or Assertive? Only One Way Wins.
Salespeople get a bad rap for trying to sell too hard. You’ve heard the term “pushy salesman” or “aggressive salesperson” or even “obnoxious salesman.” How do those phrases make you feel?
And salespeople go to great lengths to NOT be perceived as pushy, or aggressive, or obnoxious – so they (maybe you) go to the opposite end of the spectrum and try to become or be known as professional.
#8 Demonstrate Excellence
It’s Not Being Best. It’s Setting the Standard.
Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single basketball game. He didn’t just set a record. He set the standard. Abe Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard. At the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech to 500,000 people. It wasn’t just a speech. He set the standard. The Beatles. Elvis Presley. They both set the standard and paved the way for others.
Accomplishments are always compared to a standard. Quality is always compared to a standard. Products are always compared to a standard. You know what the best products in your industry are. If you work for that company, you love it and vice versa.
#9 Deliver Value First
Value Is the King of Sales and the Queen of Service.
Value is perhaps the most elusive word in sales. Everyone will tell you how important it is. Very few can tell you what it is. Value is important to a prospective customer for three reasons:
- It differentiates you from the competition.
- It gives the customer understandable reasons to purchase.
- It gives the customer the peace of mind they need to move forward. To buy.
Value is important to an existing customer for three reasons:
- It builds real relationship. Relationship based on value.
- It makes reorders more automatic and less bid-driven.
- It eliminates competition. Most competitors thrive on “saving a customer money.” NOTE: Customers don’t want to save money as much as they want to produce more and make more profit.
#10 Communicate In Terms of Them
Think past sale to genuine need and desired outcome .
What does the customer need or want to do after the sale is made? How can you show her or prove to her you have the answers and you are the best choice to create a happy ending – the ultimate outcome?
That’s what the customer is really buying: OUTCOME.
- It’s not just what it is (a perceived need) – a drill.
- It’s not just what it does – makes a hole.
- It’s the desired outcome – the result of drilling the hole.
#11 Ask Before Tell
When you’re asking an existing or prospective customer a question, the object is to get them to think and respond emotionally. To most salespeople this strategy sounds like a foreign language.
During the sales presentation, ask emotion-based questions such as:
- “Is this what you had in mind?”
- “How do you see this serving your purpose?”
- “How do you see your family enjoying this?”
Or take it even deeper with:
- “What do you think Bobby will say when he sees this?”
- “What are you hoping to achieve?”
- “How will you use this in your business?”
- “How do you envision this will add to your productivity?”
- “How do you believe this will affect your profit?”
#12 Serve Memorably
You have heard stories of great service. Nordstrom, Lexus, AutoZone, Les Schwab, Zappos, and individuals in small businesses that have gone WAY BEYOND the norm to provide extraordinary service.
Now is the time to think: service before sales.
Here are the elements of your bailout, your survival, your sales, and your success:
- Success starts with attitude training.
- It costs nothing extra to be friendly.
- Identify every service opportunity.
- Service is an individual not a company.